Quota

Published 28 January 14

Provisional figures have been provided by the RPA which give butterfat adjusted milk deliveries of 15,143 million litres for 2012/13. Taking into account permanent and predicted temporary conversions, this puts the UK at 2,096 million litres under quota, 42.8% more than the previous year. Start-of-year quota increased by 149 million litres (1.0%) compared to 2011/12 to 15,143 million litres, as the limits increase prior to the abolition of milk quota in 2015.

The 2012/13 milk year saw a continuing fall in the number of dairy farmers, while the number of dairy cows fell by 1.7% between June 2012 and June 2013. Production is often affected by weather and in 2012/13 a wet summer was followed by a cold spring, which affected pasture growth and turnout, and contributed to the reduction in annual milk production. Monthly production figures.

Annual Production and Quota (million litres)

2008/09

2009/10

2010/11

2011/12

2012/13

Start-of-year wholesale quota

14,549.2

14,699.4

14,847.3

14,994.5

15,143.4

Permanent conversions

4.6

1.6

-1.2

-2.4

-0.2

Temporary conversions

-42.1

-37.2

-46.6

0.0

0.0

End-of-year wholesale quota

14,410.3

14,663.3

14,799.4

14,992.1

15,139.8

Annually declared deliveries not butterfat adjusted

12,882.4

12,882.6

13,343.2

13,461.9

12,964.6

Annually declared deliveries butterfat adjusted

13,095.8

12,888.7

13,365.4

13,520.6

13,043.7

Deliveries under/over quota

-1,314.5

-1,555.6

-1,434.0

-1,468.1

-2,096.1

Quota by holding size 2012/13

The figures below show the number of wholesale quota holders and the amount of quota held by each category for the 2012/13 milk year.

In this year there were 14,288 wholesale quota holders in the UK and who held 14.6 billion litres of quota. 64% (9,122) of wholesale quota holders held up to 1 million litres of quota.

While only 11% of quota holders (1,512) held over two million litres of quota, these holders accounted for over a third (34%) of all wholesale quota.

UK Net Wholesale Quota by Holding Size 2012/13

(Litres)

Number of Quota Holders

Net Quota

< 100,000

259

15,418,892

100,000 - 199,999

735

114,167,861

200,000 - 499,999

3,591

1,260,966,906

500,000 - 749,999

2,563

1,581,065,555

750,000 - 999,999

1,974

1,707,950,057

1,000,000 - 1,249,999

1,551

1,725,680,061

1,250,000 - 1,499,999

914

1,247,707,517

1,500,000 - 1,749,999

700

1,132,994,825

1,750,000 - 1,999,999

489

913,668,967

2,000,000 - 2,249,999

373

789,998,712

2,250,000 - 2,499,999

250

593,488,249

2,500,000 - 2,749,999

161

421,459,732

2,750,000 - 2,999,999

139

399,522,665

3,000,000 - 4,999,999

452

1,671,891,301

> 5,000,000

137

1,049,908,150

Totals

14,288

14,625,889,450

Source: RPA

Quota Position by Region 2011/12

The breakdown of quota to regional level is currently unavailable for the 2012/13 milk year, and therefore figures below correspond to 2011/12.

The table below shows each regions position relative to quota for 2011/12. All regions within the UK finished 2011/12 below quota apart from Northern Ireland who were 0.9% (18.6 million litres) above quota. Overall the UK is 7.2% (1.0 billion litres) under quota. In England, the West was 254.0 million litres under quota, while on a percentage basis the East was 25.0% below quota. Overall England was 9.6% (0.9 billion litres below quota), Wales was 5.7% under quota and Scotland was 3.75% under.